DJ Akademiks & Joe Budden Think Drake Should Invest In Promotion Like Kendrick Lamar

Earlier this month, Drake decided to file a lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar’s track, “Not Like Us.” In the suit, he accuses UMG of knowingly spreading the “false and malicious narrative” that he’s a pedophile by promoting the song. Unsurprisingly, this has sparked big reactions from fans and peers, who have mixed reactions to Drake’s decision to take legal action. It’s also resulted in plenty of conversations about the future of his career and relationship with UMG.

During a recent episode of his podcast, for example, Joe Budden argued that Drake has yet to prove he has what it takes to succeed independently. He compared the Toronto rapper to Kanye West, who essentially had no choice but to proceed independently after being dropped by his label for making antisemitic remarks. “That Yeezy brand, he curated that over years,” he said of Ye in part. “Drake has been the system baby. So we don’t know.” Budden’s comments earned a response from DJ Akademiks, who shared his thoughts during his own recent stream.

“I agree and disagree with what Joe is saying with that though,” he began. “Independent, like he’s talking about the Tech N9ne method, where like Tech N9ne had his own warehouse to print up CDs. Nobody does that no more. So Drake investing in himself wouldn’t be a warehouse. But I do agree with him with Drake finally having a team. Like, I’m telling you, I get money from all of these artists. I don’t care who it is.”

“I think because he was so big at the top of the streaming era that maybe Universal did do some stuff, but they didn’t do what they’re doing for everybody else to him,” Akademiks continued. “That he doesn’t know that if you’re gonna leave the beast, without the beast doing what they do, you now need to do it yourself… The same way how Kendrick Lamar is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I’m telling you as a fact, he’s spending hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly.”